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Murder of Allen Page |
Murder of Allen Page
During the following year (1859), a brutal tragedy was enacted in Fork Sepulga. Mr. Allen
Page, a prominent and highly respected citizen, had started a number of wagons, loaded with cotton, from his gin house,
on Tuesday morning, toward Claiborne. In company with Mr. John Wright, Sr., he followed the wagons the next day, in a buggy,
and reached Claiborne at night. Having cautiously concealed a gun beneath the cotton in one of the wagons, Irvin Ward
accompanied the party until within a short distance of Claiborne, when he separated himself from them, and turned into a
road leading to a landing above Claiborne, announcing his purpose to visit some relations living in Clarke County. Before
sundering(?) himself from the wagons, however, he informed himself, with the utmost minuteness, with respect to the
intention of Messrs. Page and Wright to sell their cotton on Thursday, and to return home on Friday. Having passed beyond the
view of the wagons, Ward retraced his steps, hurried back toward his home, and engaged with his brother, Stephen, in the
formation of a plot to murder and rob Messrs. Page and Wright upon their return. Accordingly, they placed a small log
across the road on the east side of Little Brewer Creek, and within six miles of the home of Mr. Page, in order to check them
when they should reach the spot. One of the brothers screened himself behind a pine log, which ran parallel with the road,
and in order the more effectually to conceal himself, had stuck here and there, about him, quite a number of gall bushes.
The other was secreted about twenty yards to the rear. Both were armed with double-barrel guns. Ere long, the rumbling of
the wheels of the buggy was heard, and the murderers lay silently awaiting the favorable moment to fire. The horse reached
the log; a short colloquy ensued as to the strange appearance of the log across the road; some doubt was expressed with
regard to the inability of the buggy to roll over it, when Mr. Wright proposed to alight and to remove it. Just as he had
thrown it aside, a load of buckshot was discharged into the bosom of Allen Page, who was seated in the buggy. He instantly
threw up his hands and exclaimed, “I am killed“, and was in the act of falling from the buggy, when Mr. Wright
bounded forward and caught him. Just at this moment another barrel was discharged at Wright, the contents of which did but
little execution, as but few shot penetrated his skin. His clothes, however, were sadly perforated by the bullets. It was
afterwards ascertained that the most of the load of the second barrel took effect in a root of the log behind which Ward was
concealed. Snatching up the lifeless body of Mr. Page, Mr. Wright applied the whip to the excited horse, and dashed up the
road at full speed. He left the corpse at the home of Mrs. Bidgood, two miles from the scene of the horrible transaction. In
a few hours the community was thoroughly aroused, and excited crowds gathered about the scene of the murder. A pack of Negro
dogs, belonging to Mr. Jones, was brought into requisition, but were unable to indicate the direction taken by the fugitive
murderers. The most intense excitement, mingled with honest indignation, prevailed on all hands. The general reputation of
Irvin Ward, coupled with his suspicious conduct on the day preceding the tragedy, led to his arrest. His younger brother,
Stephen, was not suspected as being an accomplice, at the time. Irvin Ward was subjected to a rigid examination before
Justice K. R. Page. Upon his statement that he had been on a visit to relatives in Clarke County, a runner was sent hither,
and it was ascertained that he had not at all visited Clarke.
A committee of gentlemen was formed, whose duty it was to ascertain the whereabouts of every man i
the community, for several days previous to the murder. The statements of the two brothers, Ward, were found to be false in
many essential particulars, and they were seized and held in close custody, until further developments could be made.
Finally, after the accumulation of considerable circumstantial evidence against them, they openly
confessed themselves to have been the perpetrators of the bloody deed. This confession was made at the home of the deceased,
and in the presence of about one hundred auditors.
Public notice was now given that they would be hanged the following day at 1 P.M. at the spot where
the deed was perpetrated and just one week subsequent to the bloody transaction. Messengers were dispatched in all directions
giving due notice of the proposed execution.
Strong guards were placed around the house and on every approach thereto. A brother of the murderers hastened to Sparta that
night, and endeavored to secure the interposition of the sheriff on behalf of the murderers. But he would not interfere. An
excited and determined populace had resolved upon the speedy execution of the murderers, and had determined to shoot down any
parties who should undertake their rescue.
A rude gallows was erected over the spot where the deed was perpetrated; the murderers were marched
out in front of about forty citizens and to the place of execution, six miles distant. When they had come near the homes of
the Wards, they were met by their relatives -- the old parents, brothers and sisters, and the wife of Stephen Ward, bearing
in her arms an infant of six weeks. The place of execution was reached and a statement was made by the murderers. They said
that no malice had prompted the bloody deed, for Mr. Page was among their best friends. He had relieved their wants, and
those of their families, when their father could not. They had murdered him for the purpose of robbing him of the proceeds
of the cotton. After this, the ropes were adjusted by P. D. Page, Esq., and William Wright, and they swung just at One o
’clock, on Friday, the 18th of November, 1859. When they had ceased to breathe, their bodies were taken in charge by
the father and brothers.
The sons of Mr. Page, deceased, sent a number of Negro men to dig their graves and to assist in a
decent interment. At the approaching session of the Circuit Court, bills of indictment were found against about forty of
those who were most active in the prosecution and execution of the Wards, and bonds were fixed at $1,000. Judge J. K. Henry,
at the next term of the Circuit Court, caused a nol. pros. of all the cases, and thus the public mind became quiet upon a
subject which had engrossed it for so long a period.
Copied from ‘History of Conecuh County, Alabama’, by Rev. Benjamin Franklin Riley, Pastor of the Opelika Baptist Church, pages 148-152; Columbus GA.: Thos. Gilbert, Steam Printer and Book-Binder, Published 1881
Note: The Ward brothers were buried in Ward-Witherington Cemetery (T. 7, R 11, Section 10), located NE of Bowles Church, about 12 miles from Evergreen (East of Hwy 83). Their unmarked graves lay North/South and not facing East, as is the usual custom. They were the sons of William and Margaret Ward. Their date of death/hanging was November 18, 1859. Se page 269 of ‘Conecuh Headstones’, Volume 1.
Submitted by Bill King, Houston, TX ~ September 30, 2006